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the American College Health Association and Tom Berry, a post-doctoral resident and staff member at the Counseling Center.
Sleep difficulties ranked third among students’ top 10 impediments to academic performance according to the survey.
“I go to bed after there’s nothing else on TV to watch. I don’t have a bedtime,” Camille Adams, a senior in political science, said. “I used to try to get eight hours of sleep a night, but now it’s maybe six.”
Adams said she thinks she has trouble sleeping because she is stressed about her graduation in December and the amount of time she spends alone while her husband is away.
Berry said, “Having difficulty going to sleep, waking up in the middle of the night or waking up early and not being able to go back to sleep are associated with depression or anxiety – particularly having a hard time getting to sleep. When a student doesn’t get enough sleep, they are less alert and less able to concentrate.”
When Adams doesn’t get as much sleep as she needs, she said she either ends up missing a class or taking a nap when she gets home.
“I don’t want teachers to read that I’m playing games on my laptop to keep me awake,” she said.
Berry said when a person’s body does not get as much sleep as it needs, it will do what he refers to as micro-sleeping. “If you are sleep deprived enough, your body will take time to sleep by nodding off in class or after lunch or just sitting waiting for someone. The body will steal time to sleep even if just for those few minutes,” he said.
Greg Hawkes, an undeclared freshman, said he tries to go to bed no later than 11 every night to make sure he gets at least seven hours of sleep. If he stays up studying too late for a test, Hawkes said he’s “probably not at par the next day.”
“I would probably choose going to sleep over staying up too late to study for a test, but then wake up just a little bit early and study more,” he said. “In high school, I didn’t put as much importance into going to bed and getting a certain amount of sleep. I just realized that I’m in college now and I got to do the best that I can because there’s stuff that rides on my grades here. It’s more serious than high school.”
The Journal of American College Health cited a study done by researchers of 191 undergraduate students at Louisiana Tech.
Of those, 15 percent were found to consistently have poor sleep quality. Three quarters of the 191 reported having occasional sleep problems and only 11 percent believed they actually experienced good sleep quality.
Studies done by other schools throughout the country reported similar findings.
Jennifer Gowon, a senior in human resource management, said she has been an insomniac since she was 15 years old. It was harder for her to deal with the insomnia while she was in high school, but now she is used to it, so she said she doesn’t think it affects her schoolwork.
“Max, I get five hours of sleep a night,” she said. “I try to go to bed around 10, but always end up waking up at 2.”
Gowon said she has tried many things to help her go to sleep, but nothing seems to help.
“I used to take sleeping pills, but had to stop because I started getting addicted. If I didn’t take them, I couldn’t get to sleep at all,” she said.
Berry recommends trying different things to help you go to sleep.
Having a routine each night before bed is helpful, he said. “Some people will write down their thoughts in a journal or make a list of things to do if they are worried,” he said.
Adams said for the last couple of weeks she has tried rubbing lotion with lavender oil on her hands because she has heard it helps people go to sleep. She’s not sure if it works yet, she said.
Gowon said she has tried everything she can think of to help herself go to sleep.
“I work out and that doesn’t help – everything they say doesn’t help,” she said. “However, I do sleep better when I take a shower at nighttime or when I drink hot tea.”
Berry said that lack of sleep has many consequences for college students. One of the most prevalent has been an increase in depression or anxiety, he said.
“People also become more irritable. It can interfere with relationships. People get cranky when they don’t have enough sleep. It interferes with making new memories. Your studying is less effective even if you feel like you’re able to stay up. Reduced sleep will also interfere with and drive down your immune function,” he said.
Adams said, “It totally affects me healthwise because when I’m tired I don’t want to exercise and I feel sick more.”
Berry also said that in a study he read recently, people who are sleep deprived will gain weight independent of how much they eat or exercise.
“Being sleep deprived changes the hormone balance in your body. It reduces production of the hormone that tells you you’re full and increases the hormone that gets you to eat more. It also seems to enhance the storage of fat calories,” he said.
Berry said the study did not state why sleep deprivation affects hormones.
In giving advice to college students, Berry said it is important to have good sleep hygiene, which includes going to bed early and at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning.
He also said to avoid stimulant drinks like energy drinks or coffee while studying because the levels of caffeine may impair the ability to memorize material.
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